


With a Little Help From My Friends

by took_skye



Series: Crazy Is As Crazy Does [3]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Adolescent Sexuality, Alternate Universe - 1960s, Alternate Universe - 1970s, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Gen, Mental Institutions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-15
Updated: 2011-08-15
Packaged: 2017-10-23 01:08:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/244569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/took_skye/pseuds/took_skye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>"Show me who your friends are, and I'll tell you all about yourself." ~ Greek Traditional Proverb</i></p><p>~ Four shorts ~ Some non-graphic references of child sexual abuse and a semi-graphic discussion of sex by teens...you've been warned</p>
            </blockquote>





	With a Little Help From My Friends

  
_"I get by with a little help from my friends." ~ The Beatles_

***///***

Jason sat down at his favorite spot, or what he was told was his favorite spot, and tried to remember. The last thing he could recall there was still snow clinging to the grass and that New England chill in the air. Now it was middle of July muggy with hot breezes. Where had the time gone? Where had he gone?

They’d picked him up in Chicago this time, they said it was the farthest he’d traveled in a fugue state so far, and Dr Rossi swore it meant something. Had he lived there, maybe? Or had something happened there?

Why couldn’t he remember such basic facts about his life, but could recall that the Northern Cardinal was the state bird of North Carolina, West Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Virginia? Jason could plan five moves ahead in a game of chess, but couldn’t plan his own birthday…he couldn’t remember what it was.

The young man gave a sigh as he decided to just enjoy the view this bench allowed. Wide-open space filled in blue with sky and green with grass and trees of pine and maple. He closed his lids and took a deep breath in trying to smell nature on the air. It was peaceful. Jason had picked a good favorite spot.

When he reopened his eyes the teen spotted a small girl with sunshine hair approaching, a small box of animal crackers in hand. She said nothing as she sat beside him, comfortable as could be.

“Do I know you?” Jason asked curiously.

The girl shrugged as she looked somewhere so far out not he even could see what she did.

Jason smiled a touch. “Do you know me?”

The baby-faced blond nodded.

“So you were here in the winter, huh?”

The girl shook her head before setting her crackers aside and pulling out a little notebook and pen. She wrote some, then turned it to show Jason. _Spring. I’m Ashley. You’re Jason._

“Hi Ashley,” Jason smiled a bit more. “Thank you. I don’t remember a lot.”

Ashley just nodded her response as she exchanged her writing materials for crackers. She popped a polar bear in her mouth before pulling out an animal and offering it up to Jason.

It was an elephant. Jason gave a small laugh. “Maybe, if I eat enough of these, I’ll remember, huh?”

The small girl gave a close-mouthed, hand-covered, giggle.

The elder boy bit the elephant in half, chewed and swallowed, then looked at the girl once more. “You don’t talk, do you?”

Ashley shook her head. She could speak, her ears heard, vocal cords functioned, and brain understood language, she just did not speak. Each time she opened her mouth something stopped her. Something her ten years on this Earth couldn’t process or work past yet. So she remained mute, a tiny part of her cut off from the rest of world, as she sat beside the boy who’d had seventeen years on the world almost completely cut off from him by an inability to remember.

***

Derek sat atop the crappy dryer just hoping it didn’t bust halfway through…or that anyone came down.

It was the second night this had happened. The second night he woke up from nightmares to wet sheets. He’d thought, maybe, if he just got rid of the poster it would help but it didn’t. Each gift Mr Buford, Carl (he said they were close enough for Derek to call him Carl), sent him was like a reopening of wounds that never fully healed. Derek could smell Mr Buford’s cologne mixed with the dirty wood of the man's cabin and, in the dreams, he could feel…

There was a noise, a foot hitting the concrete of the basement, and Derek gave a jump.

“Who’s there?” a girl’s voice demanded.

“Who’re you?” Derek snapped back.

“Asked you first,” the girl replied stubbornly.

Derek smiled a little. “Elle?”

“…Yeah…”

“It’s Derek, Derek Morgan.”

The feet moved slowly until the young woman leaned around the corner. Her lips relaxed into a sight smile at seeing him. She knew Derek; Derek was safe. “Hey, Derek.”

“Hey.”

“What’re you doin’ down here?”

“Just…” Derek shrugged, “ya know.”

Elle smirked some; she could be playful and teasing with Derek and he wouldn’t mind. “Someone have a happy dream?” He wouldn’t think it meant more than the joke it was intended as.

For a moment Derek stared somewhere between disgusted and confused, but then his brain put it together. He gave his best teasingly suave face. “You know me, I’m a hound dog.” Better she think that than know the truth; better anyone think that than know the truth.

Elle really only allowed Derek to speak to her like that; he was the only guy in the whole institute that could be, even vaguely, sexual around her without her getting upset. It was probably because they’d entered at nearly the same time, because they were virtually growing up together, and because Derek always asked before entering her personal space. “Don’t worry, Derek, I won’t tell anyone.”

“Thanks.” Derek hopped off the dryer and took a step forward. “Need help?”

“N-No,” Elle shifted her sheets some in her hands. “I’m okay.”

“Okay.” For a moment or two the teens stayed silent, looking at each other, not sure what to say or do. Derek scuffed his foot a moment, then stepped back. “I won’t tell either, Elle.”

“Thanks.”

***

Aaron lay on the bed with hands folded under his head. He gave a dramatic sigh. "George?"

"Yeah?"

"You ever think how unfair it is that girls can make things sexy when we can't?"

George looked up from his well-worn _Catcher in the Rye_ with a smirk. "What the fuck are you talkin' about?"

"Girls. They can make almost anything sexy. It's really unfair. I mean even just the basics, like undressing, they can do more...ya know...attractively."

"Well there's no graceful way to pull out your dick, man."

Aaron's chest started to spasm before the laugh came out and, once it did, he shook with it.

“Best thing to do is get her all hot and bothered enough to take it out herself.”

“I see,” Aaron did his best to stay straight-faced.

George smirked, “At least that way you know for sure it’s gettin’ wet.”

“Okay.”

“Girls never take a dick out unless they want it in them somewhere.”

“That a fact?”

George set his book down to examine the other boy like he was something from another world. “You’re a virgin,” he smirked out.

Aaron said nothing as his face cherried.

George gave a small chuckle. “That explains,” he shook his head, “so much. Don’t worry, Aaron, you’ll see.” He picked his book up once again. “I’ll have ya laid good and hard before your sixteenth, promise.”

***

Spencer sat cross-legged on a beanbag as he read _The Andromeda Strain_ ; five minutes in and over halfway done, but it was good enough for the eleven-year-old to read again just for pleasure.

He liked reading, very little else gave him the same pleasure as books and gaining knowledge through them. The boy’s first week of the institute was spent in their makeshift library reading; he read until he fell asleep only to wake up and start reading exactly where he’d left off. Only when required by therapists and doctors did the youth make an effort to interact with others and, even then, it was through less interpersonal methods – a battle of wits as opposed to a socially interactive game.

“Hey Spence!” JJ plopped down on the floor directly in front of him with a grin and a giggle.

The boy didn’t look up. “Hi JJ.”

“Wanna hang?”

“Hang?” JJ snatched the book from the boy’s hands. “Hey!”

JJ stuffed the book under her so Spencer wouldn't try to grab it. “Come on, smart boy, play with me.” She grinned more.

“Play what?”

“A game.”

“I don’t like games.”

“You play chess with Jason. That’s a game.”

Spencer smiled a little. “You play chess?”

“No,” JJ confessed with a frown.

Spencer frowned back, but then thought of an acceptable alternative. “Would you let me teach you?”

“Sure!” JJ got up and extended a hand to Spencer. “But only if you promise not to use too many big words.”

“I assure you I won’t use a disproportionate quotient of voluminous words.”

The soon-to-be-teen girl smiled slowly. “Spence.”

“Yes?”

“Did you just make a joke?”

“Yes.”

JJ gave an appreciative laugh and Spencer giggled nervously.

***///***

 _  
 _"Show me who your friends are, and I'll tell you all about yourself ~ Greek Traditional Proverb__


End file.
